Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“What the hell happened to you?” I asked with a choked laugh.
“War,” he said ominously, glancing around. When his eyes came back to me, his smile grew devious.
“Don’t even think about it,” Curtis warned, a laugh in his voice. “You spray your mom, and I’ll have to join in.”
“You don’t want to do that,” Kara warned. “Trust me.”
Finn made a little chirping noise of worry and crouched down, looking past us at someone. Then he grinned at me and army crawled away, disappearing under one of the picnic tables.
“Is that your son?” Rebel asked curiously.
“Yeah, his name’s Finn,” I replied.
“Like a fin on a fish?”
“Yeah, but with two n’s. It’s actually Finnegan, which was my mom’s maiden name.”
“Finnegan is an Irish name.”
“It is,” I confirmed.
“Curtis is Irish,” Rebel informed me. “His great-grandpa was born there.”
“Poet, right?” I asked, glancing around. It was a shot in the dark, but I knew that Curtis was a legacy, and it was impossible to forget the man with the accent that I’d met when I was young. He’d been fascinating to kids who had spent their lives in a trailer park. My brothers and I had speculated for hours about him.
“Yep,” Curtis replied with a nod. “Baby, you wanna go grab some food?”
“Sure,” I replied. I looked back to Rebel. “We’ll be right back.”
“Get a hot dog,” she ordered as I rose from my seat. “They’re better than the hamburgers.”
“Noted.”
Curtis held my hand as he tugged me toward the food tables.
“I wonder if Finn’s hungry,” I said, looking around. I couldn’t spot either of my kids, but Dylan was in a group that was lying around in the grass near the edge of the gathering.
“He’ll tell you if he is,” Curtis replied. “I doubt you’d be able to pull him away right now, though.”
“True,” I mused. “I hope he dries out. I didn’t bring him any extra clothes.”
“He’ll be all right.”
“It’s going to get chilly once the sun goes down, though,” I said with a grimace as we reached the tables.
“The kids go home once it starts getting dark,” Curtis replied. “That’s when shit gets fun.”
The smile he pointed my way made my toes curl in my sandals.
Shit.
Chapter 9
Curtis
“You should bring Finn and Jesse out,” Draco said, raising his voice to be heard over the music blaring through the outdoor speakers. “He doesn’t need his own dirt bike. The kids all take turns on the ones available. Everybody shares.”
“I’ll ask him,” Teddy replied. “He’s never ridden before, so it might take a little coaxing. Jesse will definitely be interested, though. That kid has never met a challenge they weren’t up for.”
She was curled up on my lap, her legs thrown over mine. When it started cooling off, I’d grabbed a flannel out of my saddlebag, and it covered her all the way to her thighs, which gave the impression that she didn’t have anything on underneath.
It was fucking with my head.
“We loved it when we were kids,” Kara said, making me laugh.
“We practically had to force you to come riding,” I argued.
“That’s not true!”
“She wanted to stay home and read books,” Draco informed Teddy.
“I could ride as well as the rest of you,” Kara said, shoving his shoulder.
“Didn’t say you couldn’t,” he replied, wrapping his arms around hers to hold them in place as he kissed her neck. “You just preferred not to.”
He laughed as Kara elbowed him in the gut. They wrestled around as Kara gasped with laughter.
“I used to love riding with my brothers,” Teddy told me, turning her face so that we were practically nose to nose. “The dirt bike we had was so tall, Royce had to start it and then help Cooper and me on. Once we were moving, it didn’t matter, though.”
“Until you had to stop,” I replied, smiling.
“Yeah. That part could get a little rough.” She wrinkled her nose. “But it was worth the ride.”
“Always is,” I agreed. She shifted in my lap, and I held back a groan.
“This has been fun,” she said with a sigh. “You’re sure the kids are good back at the house?”
“Dylan let me know when they got home,” I confirmed. “He and Jesse are nearly grown, plus Rose is with the girls right down the street. Didn’t you ever have Jess babysit Finn before?”
“Not really,” she replied. “I mean, once in a while, but not at night.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t have anywhere to go,” she blurted, then laughed a little under her breath. “I wasn’t exactly out partying.”
“It’s fun, right?” I asked, gesturing to the people around us. The music shifted from an old rock song to a newer, slower love song, and Draco pulled Kara to her feet. He pulled her to the edge of the darkness and wrapped his arms around her, swaying to the music.
“They’re sweet,” Teddy said as we watched them. “They’ve been together a long time, huh?”